Texas Scene: Elder Bush to skydive for 80th birthday

Former President George H. W. Bush plans to usher in his 80th birthday by jumping Sunday from a plane 13,000 feet above the ground and hurtling through the air at 125 mph.

"A scary feeling," Bush said, as he thought about standing in the open door of the plane. "A funny feeling in your tummy or your knees."

He should know. He has made four parachute jumps in his life - three since leaving the White House more than a decade ago, including one on his 75th birthday.

Bush, who talked to The Associated Press last month about his pending skydive, decided to go ahead with the jump despite the death of President Reagan, for whom he served as vice president for eight years.

DNA test clears man jailed for 18 months

FORT WORTH - Clothing and other evidence that could have exonerated a man jailed on sexual assault charges sat untested in a police department property room for 112 years before he was finally cleared by DNA testing - three days before he was to go on trial.

A detective had requested that the Police Department crime lab test the 9-year-old victim's clothing, and Jonathan Byner's defense attorney said she asked prosecutors repeatedly to push for the tests.

Last month, after another plea from the defense attorney, prosecutors Mitch Poe and Dixie Bersano asked the crime lab to forward the evidence to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office to test for DNA.

"We had the case dismissed within 30 minutes of getting the test results," Poe told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Wednesday's editions.

Web site shows photos of accused 'Johns'

DALLAS - Men who pick up scantily clad women on street corners or other places around town may get a little more exposure than they bargained for.

The Dallas Police Department this week began posting on its Web site the pictures of so-called "Johns" arrested for soliciting prostitution. Names, birth dates and hometowns of the alleged offenders are listed.

Dallas follows other cities such as Denver, St. Paul, Minn., and Raleigh, N.C., that use similar strategies for combating the nagging problem of prostitution.

Some cities publish the photos of those convicted, but the Dallas site posts photos of those arrested for prostitution-related offenses. Officials say photos will be promptly removed if charges are dropped or a defendant is found not guilty.

In the first 24 hours, the site had more than 4,100 hits, Lt. John Dagen said. In the next 24 hours, it got 7,000.